A unique music co-operative is developing new ways to bring musicians and audiences together while the venue it owns remains closed.

The Globe in Newcastle upon Tyne was bought by Jazz.Coop in 2014 with investment from a community share issue and loans from Co-op Loan Fund and Co-operative & Community Finance. It is thought to be the only pub in the UK that is owned and run by a co-operative with a specific commitment to music, poetry and dance.

Like all pubs at the moment it is suffering from a total loss of bar sales but also the jazz musicians that it aims to support are experiencing a loss of income too.

Jazz.Coop has started to livestream exclusive concerts on Facebook and YouTube. Unlike most of the music available on social media, these Jazz.Coop virtual gigs are not free. Viewers are asked to make a donation to the musicians to access the gig. They can then watch the concert as part of a private Jazz.Coop audience and react with comments in real time. They can also view it later, and again, if they wish.

The next Jazz.Coop exclusive livestream is on Sunday 17 May at 8pm and will feature Swiss-Albanian jazz singer Elina Duni and award-winning guitarist Rob Luft. Click here for details.

Currently Jazz.Coop is streaming these gigs from musicians’ homes but it is planning to stream directly from The Globe as soon as it is safe to do so. At first this may be with only musicians and technicians in the building.

Harry Husaini, the volunteer technical director of Jazz.Coop, said: “It is likely to be a long time before the live music scene gets back to something like normal. High quality livestreaming from The Globe is the way to go. It will enable the musicians to reach a much larger audience including those people for whom it would be too risky to attend in person.”

Jazz.Coop is also looking at ways of enabling its tutors to deliver its popular jazz courses remotely.

Over the last six years Jazz.Coop and The Globe have become well rooted in the Tyneside music community. Last year The Globe hosted 270 music and dance events. Over 700 learning places were provided in workshops and courses, and musicians developed their skills in 75 free jam sessions.

Co-op Loan Fund has lent a cumulative total of £5m in nearly 200 loans since it started in 2002. This landmark figure was reached with a loan to PrimePac Solutions, an employee-owned business in south Wales that has increased production to meet a huge increase in demand for sanitising and cleaning products.

Co-op Loan Fund is a unique fund set up to provide supportive finance exclusively to democratically controlled enterprises, especially co-ops and community benefit societies. It is funded and run by co-ops with the specific aim of helping other co-ops.

Co-op Loan Fund made a small operating surplus in 2019 which was reinvested into the fund.

Ian Rothwell, Investment Manager at Co-operative & Community Finance, said: “Co-op Loan Fund is a practical example of the principle of co-operation among co-operatives. And it works. From a modest start 18 years ago the money has been recycled again and again helping many co-ops that would find it difficult to access loan finance from other sources.”

“This is what resilience looks like on the ground” said Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of Sustain speaking on BBC Radio 4 about the work Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency (GCDA) is doing in partnership with the local authority and a community trust to ensure that vulnerable people have enough to eat.

GCDA has redeployed nearly half of its 34 staff to ‘work on the front line’ sourcing and packing hundreds of food bags. Also, its high-spec commercial kitchen, which is usually hired to catering businesses, is preparing over 300 cooked meals a day for delivery to vulnerable people.

Although Kath Dalmeny was praising a particular initiative, her words could well describe GCDA generally because it is one of the UK’s longest established and most successful social enterprise development agencies that has survived many crises, although none as severe as the current one.

GCDA was set up in 1982 with the aim of supporting the establishment of community owned, democratically managed businesses to create employment, local economic opportunities and protect or provide local services.
Over the last 38 years GCDA has adapted to major changes in the funding of support agencies by being agile and entrepreneurial. In 2010 GCDA established its own business start-up centre which houses a number of food and health-related businesses. GCDA also runs cafes and community hubs on a contractual/subsidised basis and provides specialist catering and food business support across England.

CEO Claire Pritchard, who has been with GCDA for 18 years, said: “Nowadays we have very little grant funding. More than half our income comes from contract work in the public sector, much of it to do with health and food, and most of the rest comes from our own business activities.”

GCDA delivers contracts and works in partnership with several local authorities, NHS trusts and social housing organisations. Last year it:
• Ran 560 cookery clubs
• Provided 8,440 holiday meal provisions for 400 children
• Ran over 700 physical activity taster sessions and held 1,131 walks.
• Provided community meals for over 1,000 people.
• Provided training for 55 community groups and 233 people
• Put on health eating demonstrations for 1,000 people
• Supplied affordable fruit and vegetables to over 150 families and 50 early years nursery children per week.
• Helped 15 new businesses with affordable premises and business.
• Put on food growing sites and support seminars with 500 people attending
• Ran 8 regular sites with organic food growing
• Revitalised Woolwich Common Community Centre – 57,000 visits from 19 community groups, tackling isolation and poverty
• Hosted 17 businesses at GCDA Head Office.

Over the last five years GCDA has taken out three loans from Co-op Loan Fund to help smooth the inevitable cash flow problems that come with developing new ventures.

Ian Rothwell of the Co-operative Loan Fund said: “GCDA is a highly entrepreneurial agency that has adapted and grown in a sector where many have perished. Although it now has an annual turnover of over £1m it still needs that flexible help that Co-op Loan Fund can provide, and we are very pleased to give it.”

At a time when many businesses have temporarily closed, an employee-owned company in south Wales has increased production to cope with a big rise in demand for its packaging services.

In recent weeks PrimePac Solutions Ltd in Ebbw Vale has been inundated with orders to package sanitising and cleaning products. It has also bought a mixer to enable it to produce its own sanitiser. The company has taken on extra staff and is running two or three shifts a day. It has drawn down previously arranged loans from Co-op Loan Fund and Co-operative & Community Finance to help with cashflow.

Managing director and founder member Steve Meredith said: “We have managed to ramp up production while at the same time implementing social distancing and other government guidance in the workplace. We are keeping a lot of customers happy and supporting them by getting important products to them at this difficult time. Our staff are incredible – those at the plant, those working from home, and those who are furloughed – everyone is doing their bit.”

PrimePac Solutions was set up in 2005 following closure of a Dutch-owned packaging company in Ebbw Vale. Nineteen former employees used their redundancy money to set up a new business with help from Wales Co-operative Centre and Co-operative & Community Finance. After a difficult initial period the business has grown to over 50 employees and an annual turnover of £3m. Today PrimePac has net assets of £2.5m.

It has the plant, equipment and experience to manufacture and fill a wide range of packaging formats and sizes for many different sectors, from 5mg powder sachets to 1 litre glass bottles. It has major customers in the homecare, gardening, health and personal care sectors.

New warehouse

PrimePac was already planning to expand before the coronavirus crisis. It had been awarded a major contract to package shoe care products for a very well-known shoe brand. Earlier this year it took on the lease of a 35,000 sq ft warehouse, on the same estate as its 27,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, to hold extra stock. However, with the temporary closure of all but essential retail shops there was almost no demand for the shoe care products. Fortunately for PrimePac this downturn coincided with a massive increase in demand for packing and supplying sanitising and cleaning products.

Ian Rothwell, investment manager at Co-operative & Community Finance, said: “We are delighted to help PrimePac again, almost 15 years after we provided finance for the start up. This is a successful business with a very experienced workforce and management team. PrimePac is a flexible contractor that can make and pack almost anything for anyone and as such should be well placed to survive and even prosper through these uncertain times.”

A worker co-operative with a mission to build a new economy is preparing to open a residential training centre, with finance from Co-op Loan Fund.

Stir to Action, which runs national workshop programmes, supports co-operative and community business development, and publishes a magazine, has secured the lease, on very favourable terms, for Selgars Mill near Tiverton in Mid-Devon. The property includes a converted 19th century water mill, cottages and outbuildings set in eight acres of gardens and woodland.

The opening of the site as a centre for the democratic economy, climate emergency, and social change is planned for summer, although the co-op is adapting its plans in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a view to start a programme of events later this year.

The opening of the site as a centre for the democratic economy, climate emergency, and social change is planned for summer, although the co-op is adapting its plans in response to the coronavirus pandemic, with a view to start a programme of events later this year.

This is a significant next step in the development of Stir to Action, which started in 2012 as an online publisher of fresh ideas and debate about economic alternatives. The now much-admired print magazine continues to be published quarterly, and now Stir to Action is engaged in complementary actions that help to deliver its mission and diversify its income streams. It runs workshops, training programmes and pilot projects in various locations across England, from Plymouth to Newcastle.

Selgars Mill will host a wide range of events from short courses to small festivals, retreats to eco-weddings, organisational away-days to cultural residentials. Stir to Action will not be the only organisation delivering events. The team is planning to work in partnership with groups and organisations in the sector to use it as a space for movement building and education for the new economy.

There is accommodation for up to 30 people in the mill, cottages, retro caravan, and shepherds’ hut, and there are 30 camping pitches available. The site can also host small festivals and conferences of up to 200 people in marquees and a converted event barn which offers a stage, sound, and lighting facilities.

The permaculture garden, woodland, streams, and pond are integral to the success of the enterprise. The permaculture gardener was the first appointment, and now the centre and site managers have just accepted their new roles. So far, the business has created five new jobs, and many opportunities for local suppliers and partner organisations.

Abby Gordon-Farleigh, one of the founder-members, said:

“Our vision for Selgars Mill is to create a physical home for different people and sectors to work together to create new responses to economic and social crises. Now, as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds and our communities and livelihoods are put under extreme pressure to adapt, we see a real opportunity for alternative ways of organising our communities and local economies to rise up and create a better way forward. Selgars Mill is an incredible asset for our movement, and we’re looking forward to sharing with the people and communities who want to create a stronger and fairer economy for all.”

There are residential courses and small festivals booked for later this year and several couples have already booked the mill for eco-weddings in 2021.

Co-op Loan Fund is supporting this new co-operative enterprise with a loan to ease cash flow. Ian Rothwell of Co-operative & Community Finance, which manages Co-op Loan Fund, said: “Stir to Action has become an important player in the co-op arena. Co-op Loan Fund is pleased to be able to help them make the most of this wonderful opportunity of taking over the beautiful Selgars Mill buildings and gardens. However, coronavirus is likely to cause great difficulties in the first months or year of this new venture, and Co-op Loan Fund is doing all it can to ease the financial pressure.”

We are following Government guidance for businesses and are also looking at reducing the requirement for people to travel on public transport (for example, making use of telephone or video-conferencing rather than face-to-face meetings) so current diaries may need to be re-organised.

Again – if you are a customer and are facing any financial difficulties as result of the current situation then please get in touch so that we may help. info@coopfinance.coop or 0117 916 6750

2019 lending results

In 2019 Co-op Loan Fund provided seven new loans totaling £322,500.

Since the fund started in 2002 it has lent very nearly £5m to 173 co-operatives throughout the UK.

When the loans are repaid the money is lent again to other co-operatives. Six loans were fully repaid during 2019. At the end of the year the fund was worth £1.44m with £1.1m out on loan and £344,000 available to lend.

Co-op Loan Fund made another small operating surplus in 2019 which was reinvested into the fund. This means that all of our donors’ funds were available for lending and were not spent on administration.

Ian Rothwell, Investment Manager of Co-operative & Community Finance which manages Co-op Loan Fund, said: “It has been another busy year for Co-op Loan Fund with a wide variety of lending from a craft brewery in Northern Ireland to a bike recycler in Carlisle, a co-op that produces products and information to promote active travel in Kettering to a credit union in Bristol, an organisation that provides support for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual exploitation in Rotherham to a wholefood and zero waste shop in Hebden Bridge. Our lending shows that there is real variety in the co-op sector and thanks to the co-op societies that continue to support the fund we are able to nurture this diversity.”

One of the oldest organisations in Yorkshire that supports survivors of domestic abuse and sexual exploitation has bought a town centre office building thanks to the co-operation of several responsible finance organisations.

On 22 October Rotherham Rise completed the purchase of the Grade II listed building in Rotherham High Street that it already occupied together with other tenants. The building, which is to be renamed Rise House, provides 1,000 sq ft of office and retail space. Rotherham Rise uses about two-thirds of the accommodation and will now receive rent from the tenants of the other offices, thereby providing a new income stream. Rise is redeveloping the ground floor retail area as a cafe, which is scheduled to open by the end of November.

Sue Wynne, chief executive of Rotherham Rise, said: “The market for rented offices in Rotherham does not favour not-for-profit organisations like us. We have had to move premises several times in the last 10 years and it’s been expensive and disruptive. We have been wanting to buy somewhere for a while now so that our working environment is stable and sustainable.”

Rise had been planning to purchase a building and saw an opportunity at the High Street premises when they moved in as tenants at the end of 2018. They then started to look at options of how to achieve this. The purchase was made possible by Co-op Loan Fund, Co-operative & Community Finance and Key Fund collaborating on a package of long-term loans. The Co-op Foundation has provided grant and loan finance for the fitting out of the cafe.

As a result of the purchase and the new income from tenants and the cafe, Rise will be in a stronger financial position and it will not have to worry about moving premises again. This leaves the organisation free to concentrate on providing its comprehensive range of services that include refuge accommodation, support services, therapeutic services, pathway services, and training in domestic abuse awareness.

Rotherham Rise was established in 1976. Today it has 30 employees and is in the process of recruiting three project workers and it is also advertising for the voluntary post of treasurer.

Sue Wynne said: “Over the last 10 years there has been a very significant increase in the demand for our services. This is a good thing because it shows a greater awareness of domestic abuse and a willingness to report it. There has been a big leap in self-referrals. It’s been a challenge for us to keep pace with demand. Our main focus has been to ensure that people in need of our support don’t have to wait too long. Looking ahead, we are developing more pathways to our services that support people throughout the journey from victim to survivor.”

Ian Rothwell, investment manager of Co-operative & Community Finance, which manages Co-op Loan Fund, said: “It is great that we were able to help such a worthwhile organisation to secure its accommodation and improve its sustainability. This is also a good example of responsible finance organisations working together to provide appropriate lending that makes a big difference to those providing support to vulnerable people.”

A successful workers’ co-op is starting to dominate part of the high street in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Valley Organics has just opened a second shop almost opposite its first, which it took over from private owners in 2013. Co-op Loan Fund has provided a loan to help with the new premises. It also helped to fund the business purchase six years ago.

Valley Organics sells a wide range of groceries, bread, fruit, vegetables and household products, almost all of which are organic. The business has grown strongly over the last six years, despite serious floods. Turnover has increased by over 150 per cent and there are now nine workers (compared with six in 2013).

It had been clear for some time that the business had outgrown its shop at 31 Market Street, so taking on 16 Market Street, which has more than twice the shop floor area, was an obvious move. Instead of closing the first shop, Valley Organics is redeveloping the premises as a zero-waste outlet supplying loose goods where people bring their own containers. The new shop will sell packaged foods and a larger stock of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Hebden Bridge suffered from severe floods in 2012 and 2015, which forced many businesses, including Valley Organics, to close temporarily. In 2015, with the help of local people, they managed to open a pop-up shop and re-commence trading within 10 days. Being the only food shop open in the town for several weeks, trading was exceptionally good.

Valley Organics have incorporated many flood resilience measures at 16 Market Street, including waterproofed floors and walls, high level cabling, sump pump, emergency generator, steel plate glass windows, steel counter and shelving. The co-op has a flood protocol in place. When there is the risk of flood they take all low level stock and high value products to dedicated flood shelving. They also load the van and drive it to higher ground.

Alex Lawrence, one of the co-op members who was involved in the worker buyout six years ago, said: “Opening the new shop and keeping the old one will allow us to provide our loyal customers with more. Hebden Bridge is a small town and you have to stay close to community to do well. We are going to do more to promote zero-waste shopping and to support local growers.”

Ian Rothwell, Investment Manager of Co-operative & Community Finance which manages Co-op Loan Fund, said: “This is a very ethical and aware co-op that really understands its customers and the wider community and the environment. The operation has grown significantly over the last six years and they desperately needed more space. They have planned this expansion carefully and I am impressed by the many measures they have put in place to mitigate the risk of flooding.”

Rebike Cumbria is celebrating 10 successful years in business following a move to larger, better located premises earlier this year with support from Co-op Loan Fund.

The business is now based in a 5,000 sq ft warehouse on an industrial estate near the centre of Carlisle. It has over twice as much space to store, repair and display bicycles for sale. The well-loved social enterprise has two specific purposes: (1) to service and sell unwanted bicycles and (2) to provide employment training and volunteering opportunities for disadvantaged adults.

Rebike Cumbria was set up in 2009 by Geoff Tunstall, a serial social entrepreneur who had already established similar enterprises in the Midlands before he moved to Cumbria. Over the last 10 years it has become very well integrated into the local community by building strong partnerships with public, private and third sector organisations involved in employment, education, training, health, housing, and recycling. Today Rebike has four employees, two voluntary directors, and 30 volunteers (some trainees, some mentors and some others). It also has some 500 bicycles in various states of repair, including 120 ready for sale. All the bikes are donated by members of the public or recovered from recycling centres.

Geoff Tunstall said: “Over the last 10 years we have provided satisfying, useful opportunities for many people. I estimate that about 250 have gone on to get paid employment or take up other voluntary positions. We have also got a lot of unwanted bikes back on the road. I am pleased that we have achieved all this with very little reliance on grant funding. Over 90% of our income comes from the sale of bikes.”

Geoff says that the move to new premises has greatly improved the income and operation of the enterprise. However, it is a relatively short-term arrangement because the whole estate is scheduled for redevelopment in a few years. “Our longer term aim is to buy our own premises. We also want to attract some other voluntary directors to ensure the sustainability of the venture when some of the board retire.”